Scare Season
by BeckonBacon
Summary: Yamato loved scaring Naruto. So he did it again. Little did he know, he started something big. (HIATUS)
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

Take note, the storyline occurs during Naruto's training with Kakashi in the Shippuden arc. There are one or two mentions of events that occured in the filler episodes about Naruto's fear of ghosts, but they are not that crucial. I'm sure everyone who watched the Naruto Shippuden movie should know this fact by now.

Scare Season

Prologue:

Despite being an orphan, little Naruto had never grew up alone. If he remembered correctly, in the early years of his life, he often found himself crawling around a spacious room with frantic energy, grabbing spare pieces of paper off the well oiled floor to tear and chew on before a wrinkled, old hand would tug the drool covered paper away gently. The hand would sometimes reach up to pat his head fondly, and Naruto would glance up to see a similarly wrinkled face smiling at him in amusement.

_"No, Naruto,"_ a voice would chide softly after that. _"These are not for eating."_

Naruto had liked that voice with the smiley face. It was always nice to him unlike some of the other faces he saw, though they are nothing but a blur now. But it was alright, since those faces were not important. Smiley wrinkled-face, whom he would later know as the Sandaime, was the most important face to him then. Nothing else mattered.

Then he grew older and upgraded to tottering around the office. The room was just as, if not even more, fascinating to him now that he could start understanding the world around him a little better. Wrinkled-face still sat around and watched him as he grabbed documents off the floor or steal a small scroll off a pile somewhere, stopping him only when Naruto started to feel destructive (crumpling and shredding up the sheets) or particularly adventurous (climbing up the shelves).

The Sandaime dreaded the day the boy could run.

It was obvious the Sandaime was getting on his years, and could not keep up with the additional ball of energy bouncing around his office. Being reinstated as the Hokage had been tough on the once retired old man, and juggling his job while looking out for Naruto was tedious. To make matters worse, the council had been putting increasing amounts of pressure on him to toss the boy out, arguing fiercely that it was unbecoming of the leader of Konoha to associate himself with the demon that wrecked their village.

Of course, as the Hokage, Sarutobi had to have the village's best interest at heart. Though he personally didn't agree with the council and adamantly refused their wishes, he must admit something had to be arranged for the child. He did care for the boy a whole deal, but he couldn't look after him as well as he would have liked with so much responsibility on his hands.

Hence one day, Naruto found himself seated on wrinkled-face's lap, staring quizzically up at the old man once again.

_"...Naruto?"_ the elder asked. _"How would you like to meet someone new?"_

The small blond scrunched his face up in confusion.

From there on, everything went to hell quite literally, and little Naruto had no idea.

-

-14 years later, Shippuuden arc-

A little over four years ago, team seven took its first baby step into the shinobi world. They were a little group of misfits and though young, had already made somewhat of a name for themselves (among the Konoha nin at least), but for all the wrong reasons.

It must have been the biggest news of the decade (or somewhere close): Copy-ninja Kakashi was finally taking a genin team! What a shock! After years of ruthlessly failing every trio of rookies sent to his care, this was a rather big surprise. Of course some said it was because of Uchiha Sasuke, last survivor of the Uchiha massacre. The members of the Uchiha clan had always been seen as geniuses, and few doubted that Sasuke was any different. Then there was Haruno Sakura, the smartest graduate in class, if her test scores were any indication. She was a pride to the kunoichi of Konoha. With such promising students, who would refuse such a team?

But of course, human nature tends to lead men to view the more negative side of things. Despite having such famous individuals in the group, team seven was actually more notorious than anything else.

And it was because of one Uzumaki Naruto: the blonde haired, orange wearing prankster, loudmouth, three times failure of the genin academy exams, and most importantly...Konoha's own demon brat.

Naruto was the very opposite of the perfect child every parent imagined their child to be. And being the vessel of the nine-tailed demon fox, his reputation was practically at rock bottom. But then, appearances could be deceiving. Over time, slowly but surely, Naruto managed to demonstrate his determination and abilities even with the little amount of skill he had, and started to worm his way into the hearts of many people.

Iruka was damn proud of him; Kakashi was surprised; Tsunade and Jiraiya were both very fond of the blond; Anko found him interesting (and fun to mess with); Ibiki was impressed, and so did a bunch of other chuunins and jounins alike.

Then about a year later, Naruto was cowering at the foot of Tsunade's desk, muttering about how he _did_ _not_ want to go on a mission because he didn't like ghosts.

Iruka was bewildered ("I didn't know that."); Kakashi didn't know what to think; Tsunade and Jiraiya were both annoyed and amused; Anko was _very _amused ("Pff! I'm scarier than any ghost! But damn am I going to mess with his head later!"), and Ibiki scoffed.

After a year of hard work, Naruto's reputation was a tad destabilized. In the next three years when he was away training with Jiraiya, this news, together with the other stories some of the genin knew, spread like wildfire among those who were close to the blond. When he returned, Yamato and Sai who were made an addition to the group soon knew about it too.

Yamato couldn't be more curious...and pleased.

Though he was supposedly a near emotionless Anbu who was seriously dedicated to his work, Yamato has a sadistic sense of humour. It wasn't every day that you came across a shinobi that was scared so easily after all. You just couldn't let such an opportunity slip.

What harm could it do anyway?

-

Two days later, Kakashi was alarmed when his blond student suddenly shrieked and toppled right off the wooden ledge he was on, creating a splash as he fell into the deep waters below. Hauling his charge out of the water while inquiring what was wrong, the copy-ninja watched as the youth only trashed for a bit and looked upwards frantically at the spot where he fell from, not saying a word.

It was worrying.

"...Naruto?" he asked cautiously, placing a hand on the blond's shoulder only to jerk back again as the other flinched badly and whipped his head around.

Wide, blue eyes regarded him for a moment before recognition settled in. The youth flushed in embarrassment and turned away, laughing off the matter nervously. Kakashi decided not to push.

Training was ended early that day, and Kakashi walked Naruto home.

Only one saw the slightly guilty look Yamato had on his face.

-

TBC


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

AN: A big 'Thank You' to **shoutgraffiti **for your review! I was so motivated.

Scare Season

Chapter 01:

"_It's Atsuko."_

"_Aa-uo?"_

"_A-tsu-ko."_

"_Aa-s'ko?"_

"_Ah...close enough."_

-

Night fell quickly over the village of Konoha, dark and foreboding like a wraith hell-bent on possessive dominance. In one of the shadier residential districts of the village, a lone apartment stood similarly dark and silent, the usual bustle of noise –the shrill whistle of the kettle, loud slurping of noodles, heavy footsteps- uncharacteristically absent from its interiors. The dim, artificial light from the streets outside streamed in through the windows, casting a pale gloom over the room's contents; it did little to help the mood, and the lone figure curled up in bed did not like it one bit.

It was all so silly.

'I can do this. I can conquer it.'

A small shiver shuddered up his spine, a conditioned reflex made in response to the direction his thoughts were heading. He curled up further into himself, clutching a strangely shaped cloth tightly to his chest as he tried to will away his foolish cowardice. So much for all his usual bravado... A sudden childish urge grasped hold of his heart and the figure sat up in bed slowly, rumpling the sheets and blanket as he shifted. With the same deliberate slowness, he leaned over the side of the furniture, blood rushing to his head as his eyes peeked under its edge and darted about. A couple of old scrolls met his sight, covered with cobwebs and a thick layer of powdery dust that extended over the wooden floorboards, colouring them grey. In his hand, a huge pair of sewn on, down-tilted eyes stared at the scene in silence.

Despite having checked, he suddenly decided he didn't want to sleep on the bed tonight, not much for fear, but more for memory's sake. Sliding off the mattress quietly, he pulled his blankets off together with him and made his way to the cupboard. A minute later, he was on the opposite side of the room, lying on a futon. A sigh made itself heard.

"You think I'm stupid?" he asked softly, his voice seemingly loud due to the surrounding stillness. The cloth gazed at him in accusation, mocking his strange behaviour without words.

"Oh, shut up," he said, as if the cloth had spoken. "I'll get through this. I'll make sure I do." He hugged the cloth to himself again, looking at it forlornly though his eyes were far, far away. "I can take care of myself now…" he whispered, starting to drift of to sleep though his stomach rumbled slightly with hunger, unhappy with his miserable lack of appetite.

"Maybe, tomorrow..." His eyes fluttered close. "I'll go visit…o' man…"

And then he was lost from reality, buried too deeply within a dreamscape that was neither pleasant nor terribly unpleasant. His breathing slowed to a rhythmic pace, smooth and gentle, as his body rested.

Mr. Bucktooth looked on enviously, forever unable to sleep.

-

"_I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei! I'm just tired, that's all."_

The wraith, night, fled in disdain as dawn approached, lightening the sky into a paler, though still near black, shade of blue. It was still dark, but good enough to see and the low illumination posed no problems to his well-trained eye. From his perch upon the rooftop, the bed in the apartment was clearly empty, but he wasn't too concerned with it; the presence of a familiar, though slightly disturbed, chakra signature inside was enough to reassure him that things were alright, to a certain degree at the very least…

The old wooden tiles didn't even groan as he leapt off them, his feet coming to rest soundlessly on the ledge of the window below. He ducked his head and peered through the narrow opening, scanning the place for his target as he maneuvered his body forward, inviting himself inside, unwelcomed. A messy head of yellow hair poked out from underneath a futon at the corner of the room, its owner somehow managing to trap himself _under_ the thinly padded bedding which he was supposed to be sleeping _on_ during the night. As an incoherent string of mumbled words drifted through the air, Kakashi smiled to himself in slight amusement:

In a world where children grew up too fast, it was good to know that there were some that didn't in certain ways. Kakashi almost felt privileged to have taught one of such children. But that didn't mean Naruto was completely naive, of course; he knew the teen had gone through far more than what some jounins even have. It was a depressing, contradictory thought…

Making his way across the threshold, Kakashi squatted down by the sleeping lump and lifted a corner of the bedding carefully to expose his student's face. The blonde's features were marred with a frown, lips twisted into a grimace that moved silently every now and then, and it became very obvious why Naruto was now lying on the cold floor with the sheets tangled above him. Uncertain whether he should wake the blond, since he was, to be honest, intruding upon his student's privacy, he first tried to read the silent words, but other than a 'banish thee', the rest were a mere jumble of movement.

The huddled form trembled slightly, with cold or something else, and Kakashi then abandoned all thoughts of letting the blond sleep in. As his gloved hand touched a shaking shoulder, the chakra signature spiked and he caught a glimpse of blue eyes snapping wide open…just as Mr. Bucktooth got flung into his face.

Then the one-sided battle of household items ensued…

He should have expected it actually. If he had woken up to see a shadowed figure looming above his head right after a nightmare, he would have freaked too…though with more dignity. Batting away the next item -a pillow- chucked at his head, following by the whole mass of blankets, Kakashi sighed at Naruto's lack of ability in distinguishing a comrade's presence as the blond continued his frantic attempts in finding other makeshift weapons to attack with, having completely forgotten he was a ninja of Konoha.

"God in heaven banish thee!" Naruto yelled somewhere between a scroll and a cotton-stuffed replica of Kakashi himself, apparently still half asleep. The jounin stared in surprise and kept his distance, using his battered stuff doll to smack other projectiles away.

Conveniently enough, Kakashi didn't even have to stop his student as Naruto tripped over his own two feet, landing face down on the smooth floorboards with a loud smack. As the other moaned in pain, he decided to intervene before the blond killed himself in the process. Carelessness was always the reason why many shinobi were led to their deaths.

"Is that any way to greet your sensei, Naruto?" he asked teasingly. "You almost killed me with your nightcap."

On the floor, Naruto perked up and sat upright in a way that reminded him of a small animal, looking like one too with his messy hair and whisker-marked cheeks. Those rare, blue eyes widened before twinkling with a happy mischief that was seldom seen these days and Kakashi was relieved that his student hadn't completely lost his old self to grief since three years ago. "I _did_?" the blond asked, feigned amazement evident in his face and voice. "Wow, I must be pretty awesome if I could do something like that! Mr. Bucktooth must be proud of his near accomplishment!" Kakashi chuckled in mirth as Naruto grinned and picked himself off the floor, rubbing his slightly bruised nose. "What are you doing here anyway, Kakashi-sensei?" the teen continued. "You were trespassing, you know?"

"I'm just here to make sure my precious student is alright," he answered with a smile, watching Naruto pick Mr. Bucktooth off the ground to hold it fondly. "After your sudden drama yesterday, you didn't think I would just ignore it, did you?" His 'precious student' waved it away offhandedly.

"I told you I was just tired, Kakashi-sensei," the blond said and yawned once, rubbing at his eyes wearily, "It's nothing to fuss about." In Kakashi's book, screaming during the middle of training and becoming too jittery to continue was not 'nothing to fuss about'. "Must have overworked myself… Fell asleep on my feet and got a nightmare or two," Naruto explained half-heartedly and turned away, rummaging through the drawers to find his orange clothes. Kakashi didn't once believe him, and he got the feeling Naruto didn't expect him to.

"Well, I suppose we'll be continuing your training today then?" he asked, watching his charge carefully, "If you're well enough, that is." He received a slightly insulted look as Naruto paused where he was gathering his things.

"Of course I am," the blond insisted, annoyed at his superior's irritating persistence. "I wouldn't go down even if the Kyuubi went loose and decided to kill me," came the exaggeration and Kakashi almost felt a strange fear at his student's apathetic words. Naruto seemed to notice and hastened to add: "That is, if it can even get loose in the first place…" There was an awkward pause between them before the teen turned away and went back to whatever he was doing, shifting aside clothes and items noisily to fill in the silence.

Knowing that there was nothing else that he could do to try coaxing the truth out of his student's mouth, Kakashi decided to just accept the blonde's lies and play along nicely. If he pressurized the teen too much, Naruto would just clamp up even more and stubbornly refuse to say anything else, like a mimosa that shuts its leaves close when it was disturbed. It was best to just wait for now, and he had the time. When it came to Naruto, patience was vital.

"I'll see you at the training field then, when you get there," he said, beginning to leave. Naruto didn't turn back to look at him, but nodded once to show he had heard. Resisting the urge to sigh again, Kakashi formed the seals to transport himself out of the apartment and then vanished in a plume of smoke.

-

Naruto returned to training with a new, though unstable, vigour.

It was another sweltering day, and the sun high in the sky bore down mercilessly upon him, burning the skin that he had bared despite the cool rush of water that spilled before him. The roar of the long stretch of waterfalls was deafening in his ears, like a cry of outrage at his attempts to stop their flow, his wind-natured chakra pushing against the forces determinedly to split the water apart. His efforts were highly unsuccessful however, seeing how he was more distracted than usual. His chakra couldn't seem to sharpen the way he wanted it to.

At the rate he was going, even Kakashi's super-fast method of training wasn't going to help much at all.

Gazing into the furious waters with the same ferocity, Naruto gritted his teeth and tried to forget the memories of yesterday, the distorted image of the black, slippery stones behind the wall of water reminding him of the monstrosity of faces peering out of the depths with dark sockets. A shudder threatened to engulf him and his hands jerked, brushing against the wet rocks of the supporting cliff. It was cold and disturbingly slick, like rotten sludge hanging off bone…

One had happened to touch him yesterday.

Naruto felt his muscles tense painfully and immediately tried to relax, but the loss of concentration made his hands slip and a burst of water washed over him. Pulling away to fall onto a knee, the young blond cursed and growled, and somewhere below him, he felt, more than saw, two sets of intense gazes boring into his back…

A poison of anger viscously ate at his heart.

"You alright?" a voice to his side asked, and Naruto turned his eyes upwards to see one of the shadow clones addressing him. The other had a similar anguished look upon his visage that Naruto understood; they were all just him after all. Nodding once in obvious frustration, he stood up to continue the exercise, focusing his chakra into his hands again.

"I suppose we have to think of something else, huh?" he said out loud, scowling with unhappiness. The clone gave a grunt of agreement. "My damn brain can't come up with anything though… Any ideas?" he asked and saw his replica shrug lightly out the corner of his eyes.

"Ramen?" it said nonchalantly after a while, stamping its foot in irritation as the force of the waterfall pushed back stubbornly. At the thought of food, Naruto turned a nasty green.

"No use unless I'm sitting at Ichiraku's. It's only going to make me sick," he replied, swallowing air to calm his queasy stomach. "…How about a hundred and one ways to kill Yamato-taichou?" he whispered bitterly, "He got us into this mess... We should drag him in with us." Though Naruto wasn't completely serious about killing a fellow Konoha ninja, and his commanding officer at that, it was to his immense pleasure when he saw his clone narrow its eyes into slits.

"Let's drown him," the other suggested instantly, clearly thinking of shoving their captain's head into his own waterfall. "Maybe it'll wash out all his anti-Kyuubi thinking!" it snarled dangerously, feeling the demon's chakra boiling hot in its gut. Naruto could sense its anger radiating off in violent waves, and deep in his seal, he felt the Kyuubi stir at the rare bloodlust.

A second clone on Naruto's other side squirmed uneasily, very disturbed by the exchange. "Come on guys, I don't think he meant it that way," it commented, hoping to quell their anger. "He's a good captain, always looking out for everyone during missions, yeah? If he hated us, he might as well have killed us when we were sleeping and said Orochimaru did it."

The first swiveled its head to glare at the second.

"It's a ninja's job to be deceiving!" it spoke furiously in hushed undertones, so their audience wouldn't be able to tell what they were saying. "Even civilians can lie to us! Haven't you learnt your lesson?!"

"Geez, and for years after that, we still _stupidly_ put our blind faith in everyone," the second rebutted sarcastically. "Never let that stop us before, and look at the people who have become our friends! Yamato-taichou probably did it for fun and went overboard. You did see his face after that!"

The first clone laughed dryly. "Ha! For fun!? That's exactly it! How many people have decided to torment us for fun? I couldn't count anymore!" It moved its fingers furiously, mimicking a counting action as the second scowled defiantly but didn't say anything else. Naruto rubbed his head at the battle between his personified consciences, a growing headache making itself known. He sighed and felt his anger drain away with it.

"Look, let's just…drop it, okay?" he breathed out tiredly and the other two immediately quieted down, glaring murder at each other. "We'll know if it happens again. Now, let's get back to work. …And I still feel sick."

They each turned back and worked in an unsettling silence, though the rush of water was still loud in their ears. The only difference now was that there were more thoughts plaguing their minds, which unfortunately made them increasingly distracted. He was almost sure that training was never going to end…

Then the first clone spoke up again.

"…How about the Sandaime?" it reverted back to their initial conversation as if nothing had happened, though there was clearly a bite in its tone. The second clone huffed as Naruto shook his head.

"Nah, too close for comfort…" he replied.

And so they continued.

-

Despite his lazy, tardy exterior, Hatake Kakashi was actually a very sharp individual.

By the time lunchtime rolled around, Naruto had barely progressed from the stage he had left off from yesterday's training. Needless to say, Kakashi was vexed beyond words. He was sorely tempted to march up there to demand the truth, but restrained himself on the counts that he had decided to give the blond time. Instead, he called his student down from his perch and took them all to Ichiraku's.

Naruto looked strangely nauseous as Teuchi automatically set a large bowl of steaming miso ramen in front of him -his usual order- and ate the noodles with less enthusiasm than he usually would. Feigning ignorance, Kakashi opted for a cup of hot tea for himself and oddly enough, so did Yamato. He had thought the man would be ravenous after controlling the Kyuubi's chakra all morning, but it seemed that he might have been wrong.

"Not hungry, Yamato?" Kakashi asked casually and the mokuton-user turned to smile rigidly at him.

"Ah, no," he answered. "I'm not one for ramen, I'm afraid." On Kakashi's other side, Naruto rammed a bunch of wet noodles into his mouth using his chopsticks, slurping the trailing ends in with a noisy hunger.

"How can you not like ramen?!" the blond leaned forward and exclaimed a moment later, the fierce fire in his eyes almost setting Yamato ablaze, "It's the best damn food in the entire world!" To everyone's varying states of amusement, Teuchi smiled merrily and gave the teen another bowl on the house, claiming that growing boys needed their food, and Naruto accepted it without turning sick this time.

Yamato merely fixed the plastic smile on his face and didn't say anything.

Perhaps it was then that Kakashi truly knew something was going on, and that he had been left out of the crazy loop for a long while now. Here were the three of them, people who usually got along fine, and two of them were now acting weird. Kakashi may not have worked in the Konoha police force, but he had been Anbu, even better than the police, and he was ready to bet his entire collection of 'Icha Icha Paradise' books, together with the limited movie edition, that the second captain of team seven had something to do with whatever Naruto was troubled about.

His instincts were seldom wrong, and when he was agitated, they were _always_ correct.

It was with a suspicious heart that Kakashi watched as Naruto finished his first bowl of food, and when the blond had polished off the second, he calmly informed his company that the day's training was cancelled again. Naruto screeched and complained at once, but the jounin argued back based on the fact that his performance had been abysmal and unless the blond did something to fix it, there was no point in continuing at all. He reminded Naruto that the Akatsuki was still on the move.

His student stomped of in a rage and left him with the bill. Kakashi wondered if he said too much.

"Did you have to be so harsh on him, senpai?" Yamato asked cautiously, sticking up for the youngster immediately. "He was trying really hard. It's not his fault-" Unknown to the younger jounin, Kakashi's suspicion went up a notch.

"I know, but it's for a good cause."

He turned in his seat to stare at the other adult with a frightening seriousness, eye narrowed in a way that told those that saw it that he expected no nonsense whatsoever. Looking at it then, Yamato suddenly realized the impending doom he was about to face.

"I think you and I need to talk, _Tenzo_."

Yamato winced at the use of his actual name.

-

TBC

Author's thoughts: I think many people might think Naruto's fear of the supernatural is silly and immatured, but a phobia shouldn't be taken lightly, no? I imagine if we could see such things we would be petrified too. It reminds me of the time I forgot my mother had returned home and I completely froze when I saw someone else walking around the house... My brained completely seized.

Anyway, is it good? Bad? Should be scrapped down (though I won't)? Needs more descriptive work? I'm trying out a slightly different writing style so I hope the flow of the story is okay. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.


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